The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has expressed the shock that the presidential election was postponed by the Independent National Electoral Commission a few hours before its conduct.
Atiku, who spoke at his residence in Yola, Adamawa State on Saturday, said he had no issue with the sensitive materials that had already been distributed for the election inasmuch as they were kept in safe place.
Atiku said, “I am shocked with the postponement of the election. You don’t postpone an election few hours to its conduct. I am going to Abuja to attend an emergency meeting of the PDP and decide the next step. I am not dampened by the postponement.
“As long as the sensitive materials that have been distributed already are kept in safe place, there is no cause for alarm. I am appealing to Nigerians to come out and vote and to please be patient. Whatever the stakeholders decide at the meeting in Abuja will be communicated to Nigerians.”
Atiku also said this in a statement he personally signed in the early hours of Saturday while reacting to the shift in the dates for the conduct of the general elections as announced by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
Atiku signed the statement which he addressed to Nigerians from Yola, Adamawa State where he had gone to cast his vote.
The former vice president said that it was unfortunate that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari failed to utilise the time it had to organise the elections.
He likened the actions of the commission to the Biblical hand of Esau but the voice of Jacob.
He said, “As you know, the Independent National Electoral Commission has announced a postponement of the elections until 23 February and 9 March respectively.
“The Buhari administration has had more than enough time and money to prepare for these elections and the Nigerian people were poised and ready to perform their civic responsibility by voting in the elections earlier scheduled for Saturday, 16 February, 2019.
“This postponement is obviously a case of the hand of Esau but the voice of Jacob. By instigating this postponement, the Buhari administration hopes to disenfranchise the Nigerian electorate in order to ensure that turnout is low on the rescheduled dates. Nigerians must frustrate their plans by coming out in even greater numbers on Saturday, 23 February and Saturday, 9 March respectively.
“Knowing that the Nigerian people are determined to reject them, they are desperate and will do anything in their power to avoid their rejection by the Nigerian people.
“Their plan is to provoke the public, hoping for a negative reaction, and then use that as an excuse for further anti-democratic acts.”
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